Vindolanda Day Two - Jacks and Jackdaws

Weather was better than predicted today so we completed the removal of that 17th century cobbled farm yard.  Interestingly the cobbles were laid over a layer of lime.  There were several lime kilns nearby.  The farmer would rob stone out of the Roman fort, use some of it for buildings and such, but then presumably would have additional altars, inscriptions and fancy stuff burned to make lime....which he used for his low quality construction project.    We move on to hopefully more interesting layers in the days ahead.

Actually one interesting artifact did pop up from this much later area.  Here:

It is, of all things, a jack.  The date is unclear but I'd guess 18th or 19th century.  Heck, jacks were still around when I was a wee lad.  The actual game of jacks is interestingly of considerable antiquity.  In Greek and Roman times it was played with knucklebones of sheep.  Like these:

Game play involved dice as well.  Perhaps the old saying "roll them bones" refers to both the actual knuckle bones and to the dice which could be made of various substances in Roman times.     On the subject of jacks we had a visitor at lunch today.

Also a jack I suppose.  This is one of the birds that hangs around begging for crumbs.  It is a jackdaw.  This is a relative of the magpie, and like them it has a fondness for shiny objects that is steals and flies off with.  Something along those lines apparently happened in season three of The Detectorists!

As we hopefully leave modern times behind us, a few more images.

I tried to frame the head archaeologist in this 1970's beer pull ring but could not quite get him lined up!

And for my digging pals here and Absent, two images of the same bit of pottery.

Hey, looks Roman.  Nice bit of Samian ware!

But, when you flip it over....

Salt glaze interior.  Decidedly newer although that could be anything from the 1600's to last week at Ikea.

Deluge predicted tomorrow.  I've saved up a few more pictures of "bits and bobs"